With fewer metrics to distinguish themselves as physician residency applicants, medical students are doing more research, and it appears to be coming at the expense of other extracurricular experiences.
At the 2025 AMA Poster Showcase, medical student Aaron Kiel presented findings showing that medical students are producing more research than ever. The likely driver? The move to pass-fail scoring on Step 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination.
Kiel’s research analyzed data from the Association of American Medical Colleges’ (AAMC) Report on Residents, comparing application trends before and after the USMLE Step 1 exam shifted to pass/fail scoring.
Among first-year residents “across all specialties, we saw a significant increase in research deliverables—up to almost 20%,” said Kiel, a fourth-year medical student who attends medical school in Connecticut. “At the same time, there was a notable decrease in work and volunteer experiences.”
What do these shifts mean for medical students in the context of residency selection? Kiel and a veteran GME faculty member offered insight on that question.
Research up, work experiences down
In analyzing data across 24 physician specialties, Kiel found that first-year residents in 22 of them saw an increase in research deliverables—abstracts, presentations, and posters—with an average rise of 18.4%. His poster compared trends from the 2022–2023 and 2023–2024 residency selection cycles, which were immediately before and after the Step 1 scoring change.
That trend was especially pronounced in specialties that are considered highly competitive. For example, vascular and thoracic surgery saw the largest spikes in abstracts, posters, and presentations before and after the Step 1 scoring switch. Meanwhile, general surgery preliminary and transition year programs, often pursued by applicants trying to match into more competitive specialties the following year, showed the biggest drop-offs in work and volunteer experiences.
“These students are likely reallocating their time,” Kiel said. “If they’re trying to move from a preliminary spot into a very competitive specialty, they’re prioritizing research over doing volunteer work experiences.”
Looking at broader research production trends, data published by the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) drawing from the 2024 Match cycle found that research output tends to be highest in procedural specialties. In 2024, the specialties with the highest average number of abstracts, posters and presentations included neurological surgery, plastic surgery and orthopaedic surgery.
From metrics to meaning
The idea that research experience has become a go-to differentiator isn’t surprising. But does that mean it outweighs other experiences in residency selection?
“It’s a complicated question,” said Douglas McGee, DO, enterprise lead for graduate medical education at Jefferson Health. “Every discipline weighs these components differently, and even within a specialty, programs vary in what they value.”
A former emergency medicine residency program director, Dr. McGee highlighted that changes in medical school grading, class rank reporting and now Step 1 scoring have eroded many traditional academic metrics.
“Some of this weighting is inadvertently generated by the system itself,” said Dr. McGee who is also vice dean for GME at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. “If you can’t distinguish yourself by GPA or Step scores anymore, then applicants feel they have to distinguish themselves some other way.”
On the other side of the equation, “very competitive programs often try to use other things to sift candidates. And sometimes that’s research.”
A training institution and health system with more than 200 residency programs, Jefferson Health is a member of the AMA Health System Program that provides enterprise solutions to equip leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to help drive the future of medicine.
More paths to stand out
Dr. McGee acknowledged that research experience may help applicants stand out in certain programs and specialties, but it’s hardly a universal requirement.
“There are about 14,000 residency programs in the U.S., and most of them are not hardcore academic research programs,” he said.
Research can be most valuable to your residency application and long-term career trajectory when it helps you understand a specialty more deeply or explore an academic interest. But it’s not the only way to demonstrate that understanding.
“Volunteer work, community involvement, and advocacy can also speak volumes about an applicant’s commitment and character,” he said. “Especially when it clearly connects to the patient population or practice setting of a particular specialty.”
“If someone has done volunteer work in areas related to my specialty, I can conclude they’ve had more exposure to the field and likely have a better understanding of what they’re getting into.”
Ultimately, Dr. McGee said research is one of many levers students can pull when building their application.
“There are enough programs out there that regardless of your strengths, you can find a fit,” McGee said. “You don’t need to pursue research just to check a box. Figure out what kind of doctor you want to be, and look for programs that value those same things.”
For medical students looking to hone their medical student research skills, the AMA offers resources and programs that bring you from the basics all the way to the AMA Research Challenge where you can compete for a $10,000 prize.
